“AI Will Destroy Humanity”: Inside the Secretive World of Americans Preparing for the End of the World

While some people dismiss talk of the end of the world as fantasy, others are spending thousands of dollars preparing for disaster. American “preppers” stockpile food, water, energy sources and everything else they might need in the event of hurricanes, pandemics, cyberattacks, economic collapse or even an artificial intelligence uprising, the New York Post reports.

FDNY firefighter Jason Charles has managed to fit roughly $10,000 worth of supplies into his small Manhattan apartment. He stores freeze-dried food, water, a solar generator and radios, while some of his supplies have had to be moved to a rented storage unit. Altogether, he has enough provisions to last about a year.

Charles became interested in prepping after reading William Forstchen’s post-apocalyptic novel One Second After 13 years ago. He now runs a YouTube channel about survival and considers the threat of AI one of the more absurd fears of the modern era. At the same time, he acknowledges that some scenarios simply cannot be prepared for.

“If we get sucked into a black hole, we’re all pretty much doomed,” he said.

For other preppers, the fears are more down-to-earth.

A North Carolina woman named Carmen began stockpiling supplies after moving to an area prone to hurricanes. But the real turning point came with Hurricane Helene in September 2024. After the disaster, her family had no reliable information about roads, no GPS, no maps and not even enough backup fuel.

Now Carmen stores water, shelf-stable food and canned goods, uses solar panels and grows her own vegetables. She describes herself as a “Tuesday prepper” — someone who is not expecting the end of the world but simply wants to be ready for “that random but inevitable day when something bad happens.”

Thirty-six-year-old Abigail from Kansas is preparing for more ominous scenarios. After the tense 2024 presidential campaign, she began worrying about a potential geopolitical conflict, as well as a nuclear attack, a cyberattack on the power grid and a powerful electromagnetic pulse.

Abigail believes climate change and social inequality are contributing to a growing sense that catastrophe is approaching. She grows vegetables, stores freeze-dried food, water and first-aid supplies, and gradually builds up a stockpile of other items her family might need.

For her, however, prepping is about more than supplies. She believes that in the event of a serious crisis, survival will also depend on people’s ability to come together.

Seventy-year-old Larry, a U.S. Navy veteran, likewise considers preparedness a matter of common sense. After his family experienced a hurricane, he built a home equipped with a generator, a well and a septic system. He also has fuel, solar panels, Tesla batteries, water and food supplies.

Roman V. Yampolskiy, a professor at the University of Louisville’s engineering school, believes such concerns deserve attention. In his view, what is strange is not that people prepare for disasters, but that humanity is developing potentially transformative technologies without adequately preparing for the consequences if something goes wrong.

“Preppers may seem eccentric, but risk diversification is a standard principle of managing even low-probability events that could have devastating consequences,” the expert said.

For some, it is the end of the world; for others, it is simply common sense. But America’s preppers clearly have no intention of facing the next crisis unprepared.